AN AMERICAN JESUIT REFLECTING
ON CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDING OF "FREEDOM"

Father John F. Kavanaugh described his
reactions to an article on the film "The Truman Show", which he
describes as "a movie about cultural illusion".

The particular theme that stays with me is
that of human liberty (or its close relatives, freedom and autonomy). These
notions are the great cultural holy cards of our time. Almost every ethical
issue seems to be resolved by the assertion, "It’s a free choice".
The "liberty interest" is invoked in the majority of Supreme Court
decisions: the freedom of artists to ridicule the most sacred of beliefs; the
autonomy of a woman over her body, even if she is bearing another human being
within her; the privilege, in the face of suffering and death, to determine
the meaning of life; the unfettered right to suicide; the freedom to utter
anything anywhere.

We are great advocates of autonomy in this
culture. We celebrate freedom. We might even kill or die for it. But what is
our freedom? How are we autonomous? In the "free choices" of
abortion and euthanasia, for example, the most powerful but subtle coercions
are brought to bear upon people who "choose" to terminate a
pregnancy or have themselves killed. The economy, the culture and the media
propagandize us as to what choices are acceptable and desirable while they
program us to think that we are free. Just do it!

But this is the thinnest of freedoms, if it
is freedom at all. It may trumpet free markets (which we offer as
"freedom" to the Chinese). It may mean being able to move around (in
a nicely circumscribed world constructed and directed by the powers that be).
It may allow us to choose between McDonalds and Burger King or Bush and
Clinton. It may make us feel happy that we can do what we want to do. But it
never prods us to question why we want the things we want.

A thicker, richer account of freedom is not
that we choose, but that we know why we choose the things we do. It celebrates
not our choice, but the understanding of why our choices are truly ours.
All of us have been influenced by forces that directly or indirectly
"cause" us to behave in a certain way. The movement toward freedom,
in such a situation, is not to exercise our choice blindly, but to exercise a
critical distance from the subtle enticers of our choice.

The harrowing message of "The Truman
Show" is not the grandiose contrivance of a media mogul. It is, rather,
the fact that each of us can be seduced into making only those
"free" choices that the culture approves. Innocuous smiles. American
dreams of manicured lawns and pleasant jobs, elections and visits to foreign
countries that are little more than staged events, moralizing about saving our
children while the state and economy cannibalize them, capitalism proclaimed
as freedom when it is often our bondage – these are all part of the fabric
of lies that hides the sky.

Like Truman Burbank, there are those who
finally suspect that the scenario is a set-up. They have been allowed to
question their faith, their parents, even their senses, but never the cultural
dogmas. If they do, like Truman, they will stride across the false horizon of
a consumer cosmos and find that, beyond this contrived world, there is a life,
not of vacuous choice but of intelligent commitment waiting for them.

Source: America, Vol. 179, No. 2,
18-25 July 1998, p. 18.

INCULTURATION AND DIALOGUE IN CHRISTIAN
MISSION

The July 1998 issue of the International
Bulletin of Missionary Research contains the usual substantial book
reviews and fascinating accounts of the work and lives of pioneer Christian
missionaries, as well as a theological debate on the work of the different
persons of the Trinity. This issue includes an article from Ghana on some
questions about the limits of inculturation, and a reflection from Rome on
dialogue as an essential element in mission.

Kwame Bediako, founder and director of the Akrofi-Kristaller
Memorial Centre for Mission Research and Applied Theology in Ghana,
wonders "whether the experience of the reality and actuality of Jesus as
intended in Christian affirmation can inhabit the Akan world of Nana in
the same way that it could inhabit the Greek world of Logos". He
asks this because of the preoccupation of many (mainly non-African)
theologians with the risks they perceive in moving away from strictly biblical
titles for Jesus. Nana is generally translated as "ancestor",
but it is used equally as a personal name, just like Christos. So the
problem is with the English word "ancestor" rather than with Nana.
He suggests more space should be given to people’s creative attempts to
express their experience of Jesus. He finds encouragement in the pattern of
Christianising Greek terms, for example when early Christians spoke of Kyrios
Jesus, in conscious parallel to Kyrios Sarapis, which he sees as an example of
the simultaneous conversion to Christianity of Gentiles and the penetration of
their thought by Christ. The process of exegesis of biblical words and texts
"needs to continue into all possible languages in which biblical faith is
received, mediated, and expressed". This is more important given that
non-western Christianity is facing problems alien to Western Christian
experience, in a way that indicates that "culture… will continue to
have a decisive impact on the shaping of Christian thought". The
languages and traditions that are welcoming Christ offer "fresh insights
into our common understanding of the doctrine of Christ". The
second-century Church Fathers found in the Gospel "a key to interpret the
religious meanings inherent in their own language" and something which
was "the heir to all that was worthy in the past, while it held all the
potential of the future", and this could "throw light on the
processes involved in the shaping of Christian affirmation in the new cultural
contexts and cultural idioms of Africa in which biblical faith is now
beginning to be expressed". The impact of culture on Christian thought is
seen here as an integral part of the latter’s development.

Marcello Zago, o.m.i., Secretary of the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, sees dialogue as "the
great new missionary reality of the postconciliar era". It is seen in
magisterial documents and in contemporary Catholic approaches to missionary
activity as grounded in the way God relates to us. It brings with it respect
and discernment, and judges no person or group as "uncultivated ground,
deprived of culture and the action of God". Dialogue is essential for the
emergence of an authentic Church, and is a vehicle for making the world
"a more fitting dwelling place for human beings". After discussing
various forms of dialogue implicit in missionary activity, Zago points out
that "the dialogue attitude allows us to have a new type of presence and
opens up the Christian community to the cultural and religious context".
It is a clear sign of the Christian community moving on from what once was a
"ghetto" mentality. But it "requires a deeper understanding of
one’s own religious identity in order to avoid lapsing into
relativism". It is healthy to remember how much a person’s or
community’s religious understanding is influenced by the surrounding
cultural milieu. For example, Japanese Christians cannot avoid being
influenced by the culture associated with Buddhism and Shintoism. Nobody is
isolated from or "immune to" his or her culture, and in this sense
"all believers must necessarily have an interior dialogue with their
religious cultural roots in order to clarify one’s Christian identity and
consciously inculturate one’s faith". Every religion is recognisably
influenced by culture, and "there is no traditional culture that is not
touched and animated by religion". Although Islam "tries to spread
the message of Mohammed together with a unifying Arab culture", there are
local cultural accretions. Zago is saying basically that any form of dialogue
with other religions is essentially also intercultural dialogue. It has to be
flexible enough to adapt to situations that change quickly and, above all,
true dialogue is not between institutions but "with real persons. It
requires constant personal formation to clarify one’s own identity and to
find ways of respecting, listening to and co-operating with others. Dialogue
presupposes a progressive spirituality nourished by personal values and
asceticism. Only then can methods of dialogue in mission be fruitful".

Source: International Bulletin of
Missionary Research, July 1998, pp. 98-101 and p. 110f.

XIII WORLD ASSEMBLY OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
COMMUNITIES
(ITAICI, BRAZIL, JULY 1998)

The World Christian Life Community,
sponsored and run by the Society of Jesus, met for its 13th.
assembly in summer 1998 in the Vila Kostka in Itaici, Brazil. A former member
of the Sodality of Our Lady in his own school and college days, Cardinal
Stafford, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, sent a message of
greeting, and Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach was present throughout, offering a
homily at mass one day and a talk in which he evaluated the development of the
CLC’s antecedents from foundation by Father Johannes Leunis to the present,
in a way which drew the positive elements of the old Sodality and the more
explicitly Ignatian turn since 1967 close together.

The guiding thread for the assembly was a
document entitled A Letter from Christ Written by the Spirit Sent to
Today’s World, which discovered three areas of mission and approaches to
each area. The second area was Christ and Culture. There is a strong
sense of the richness of different cultures, and consequent concern that
"the emerging world culture seems to be having the negative effect of
destroying the uniqueness of each culture more than the positive one of
drawing peoples of different cultures together in one world which respects the
unique contribution of each culture". At the level of the dominant world
culture, individualism, consumerism and marginalisation of the poor are to be
countered by dialogue, an affirmation of life and a concern for human rights
and dignity, all founded on a simple life-style. Local and regional cultures
are to be enriched by a concern for community and a creative and positive use
of symbolism; this is closely linked with a critical and creative use of the
media and various communications technologies. Love for one’s culture will
call forth the courage also to speak out against what is not good. Particular
attention ought to be given to the situations in which people find themselves
on their journey through life; for example, education in clarity of values and
a commitment to reconciliation are high priorities. This applies within the
Church and in the Catholic Church’s links with other Christians. It is
necessary to promote values which sustain authentic human relationships always
fed by faith in Christ, and to "work for authentic inculturation in local
churches, helping Church in promoting what is positive in the local churches
and challenging their negative aspects, and applying this to pastoral service,
to catechetics, to liturgy and to theology".

Source: Progressio, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and
4 1998 (special edition).

A SECULAR VISION OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
FAMILY VALUES

A recent issue of the periodical Free
Inquiry includes a declaration of how secular humanists would like to
rescue family values from "those who would use them to impose personal or
state power over others". They also have in mind all those forms of
marriage which we are said to have "outgrown" (this naturally
includes a Christian understanding of marriage). According to this text, those
calling for a return to traditional family values are trying to impose
authoritarian restrictions on people who ought to be allowed to enjoy a very
broad spectrum of rights which would allow them to adapt their family
structure to "sweeping economic, technological, and cultural
changes" which "present new challenges and opportunities to families
across the globe". The ten principles affirmed here by Matt Cherry and
Molleen Matsumura give a clear picture of a secular alternative to traditional
understandings of marriage, a vision which would foster an enormous cultural
change.

The key notion in the first principle
is freedom to choose one’s own family structure, a freedom which
"extends beyond conventional nuclear families to include single-parent
families, same-sex partnerships, child-free families" and much more. The
second principle appeals for full legal respect for inter-racial,
inter-faith and same-sex marriage. The third principle simply
underlines a thorough equality between women and men in everything pertaining
to marriage and its dissolution. Principle 4 demands that all forms of
abuse within marriage, especially "marital rape", should be
recognised and treated as crimes. The fifth principle is that the
family (presumably as defined earlier) is the best place for forming people
who are able to enjoy "fulfilling personal relationships", to make a
useful contribution to society, to enjoy their "right of
self-determination" and to live as "caring, ethical
individuals". Traditional and religious factors, according to principle
6, should be given much less importance in resolving questions concerning
adoption than people’s "ability to provide a safe, loving, and
enriching environment for the child". The seventh principle speaks
of children’s rights to medical care and to protection from physical harm.
It refers to genital mutilation, "other traditional or religious
practices" and parents’ refusal to allow medical care (this is probably
directed at Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious or para-religious
groups). The eighth principle stresses the need for education free from
indoctrination, and implies that society should see to it that a family’s
financial limitations do not impede education. Principle 9 states that,
when "birth control and fertility technologies" are used wisely,
"they strengthen families by making family relationships a matter of
choice. Individuals must be free to control their own fertility and sexual
health, and should not be denied access to sex education, contraception,
prophylactics, or abortion"; interference with family decisions on these
matters is to be excluded. The final principle appeals for complete openness
to a fluid and changing notion of the family. The values to be passed on to
children will be altered by changing economic circumstances, and proper
"support for families means constantly and flexibly re-examining the
relationship between family and society in the lives of free, responsible
individuals…; we must liberate individuals to create genuinely loving and
lasting relationships".

This statement was issued just over a year
after the foundation of the Secular Family Network, based at the Council for
Secular Humanism’s headquarters in Amherst, New York, in the United States
of America. This network offers resources including courses for children and
parents. It has a "Children’s Enrichment Program", designed to
cultivate humanist values, and sponsors an annual summer camp for humanist
children – Camp Quest. There is a quarterly newsletter, Family Matters,
and an Internet web site: www.secularhumanism.org/family.

On 8 April 1999 in Paris the
Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor, and René Lenoir, former minister
for social affairs in France, opened this conference which brought together
eight Nobel laureates from various disciplines, as well as young scientists,
sociologists and philosophers. They were there to discuss major challenges
facing the 21st century, major conceptual changes, economics, human
rights and culture, links between science and democracy, and the future of the
planet.

Mr. Mayor contrasted the progress which can
be ascribed to science with the lingering threat of violence, and asked
"Where is the progress of homo sapiens in his relations to his
fellows?" He opined that the human community is "cognitively
over-endowed", and emphasized that the parallel and unequal development
of different parts of the planet (particularly North and South) creates a
schizophrenia in the human race which "will soon become untenable".
He urged those in positions of political influence to "take the necessary
measures", but hoped the human community as a whole could and would play
its part.

Mr. Lenoir stressed how science has moved on
from a position of arrogant self-confidence to one of prudence. Far from being
a vehicle of re-enchantment for the world, science is valuable above all for
its method. On the question of the complex relationship between the new
applications of science and the political process, he put human questions at
the centre of the concerns of scientists and politicians alike. The purpose of
the conference was to show that "a new paradigm" is emerging, along
with a new concept of science. This was in line with the ideals of Alfred
Nobel, who was concerned to link the development of knowledge with the quest
for peace.

Article 18 of a recent report issued by the
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in Australia refers to Freedom
of Religion and Belief, and lists witchcraft, paganism and even atheism as
religions; it also recommends that all laws concerning blasphemy, paganism,
sorcery and witchcraft be struck out. According to Allan Panozza, the report
needs to be understood as part of a culture "that has largely surrendered
to worldly ways, and is sceptical of religious truths". He recognises the
great wealth and freedom enjoyed in Australian society, but experiences it as
one where "we face all of the isms – secularism, materialism,
consumerism, individualism – all the isms of self-gratification and
the pursuit of worldly reward". One of the greatest challenges to faith,
he says, is New Age philosophy, whose basic principle appears to him to be:
"I have the power within me – I do not need God in my life!" The
best way to approach the third Millennium is with "a desire for a deeper
relationship with Jesus Christ", which is the primary grace flowing from
"Baptism of the Spirit".

If Christians do not accept Bengali culture
they will never be accepted as Bangladeshis by their fellow citizens. Even
though Christians have been living in Bangladesh already for a long time, many
proponents of other religions consider them to be foreigners. In fact, it was
a Christian missionary who was the pioneer of prose in bangla, the
national language, and the first to set up a printing press, recognising the
importance of bangla for education and civilisation.

Cf. Asia News, April 1999, p. 4.

PHILIPPINES

Thirty thousand copies of the first edition
of "The Pastoral Bible" in Chinese are now available in the
libraries of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia. The second edition of this
version will be on sale in mainland China next year. The Bibles have been
printed by the Protestant Publishers Amity Printing Press of Nanjing
and has the approval of the Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong, Mons. John Tong
Hon. Fr. Bernard Hurault, the co-ordinator of the publishing project,
described the work as "a book that is appealing in which the
topographical presentation, the simple language and the pastoral comments make
it attractive for daily reading."

PUERTO RICO MUST RETAIN IDENTITY AND
CULTURE

On May 8, Roberto Gonzalez was invested as
the new Archbishop of San Juan. During the ceremony, the new Archbishop said:
"The future of our culture depends on how our political, social and
economic life respects the spiritual transcendence of the human person in all
its dimensions."

The Archbishop offered his help, with
absolute respect for the freedom of the citizens, to judge and defend the
different proposals which promote the dignity of the human person and the
defense of his civil and human rights.

He invited Puerto Rico's Catholics to assume
a greater commitment to the poor, to fight for social justice and to defend
their national identity and culture.